PLINY THE ELDER

There is always something new out of Africa.

In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen.

Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

From the end spring new beginnings.

Truth comes out in wine.

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work.

No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments.

The best plan is to profit by the folly of others.

Home is where the heart is.

It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.

The lust of avarice as so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth.

It's [the earth's] shape has the rounded appearance of a perfect sphere. This is shown first of all by the name of 'orb' which is bestowed upon it by the general consent of mankind.... Our eyesight also confirms this belief, because the firmament presents the aspect of a concave hemisphere equidistant in every direction, which would be impossible in the case of any other figure.

How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have actually been accomplished?

It is far from easy to determine whether Nature has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.

What is there more unruly than the sea, with its winds, its tornadoes, and its tempests? And yet in what department of her works has Nature been more seconded by the ingenuity of man than in this, by his inventions of sails and of oars?

The world and that which, by another name, men have thought good to call Heaven (under the compass of which all things are covered), we ought to believe, in all reason, to be a divine power, eternal, immense, without beginning, and never to perish.

How innocent, how happy, how truly delightful, even, would life be if we were to desire nothing but what is to be found upon the face of the earth: in a word, nothing but what is provided ready to our hands!

We trace out all the veins of the earth, and yet, living upon it, undermined as it is beneath our feet, are astonished that it should occasionally cleave asunder or tremble: as though, forsooth, these signs could be any other than expressions of the indignation felt by our sacred parent!

Of all wonders, this is among the greatest, that some fresh waters close by the sea spring forth as out of pipes: for the nature of the waters also ceaseth not from miraculous properties.

Our forefathers regarded as a prodigy the passage of the Alps: first by Hannibal and, more recently, by the Cimbri; but at the present day, these very mountains are cut asunder to yield us a thousand different marbles; promontories are thrown open to the sea; and the face of Nature is being everywhere reduced to a level.